BANK OF NEW ZEALAND ( BNZ )
Want to better manage your finances ? Bank of New Zealand ( BNZ ) is showing customers how it ’ s done
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I f you want to start a new chapter in a faroff country , one of the first logistical hurdles you ’ ll face is creating a local bank account . This was exactly the case when Stephen Bowe touched down in Australia just over a decade ago . “ Being new to the country , I needed a bank account . I actually tried opening accounts with several different banks , but in each case the whole process was awful ,” Bowe recalls . “ I vividly remember walking through Sydney ’ s CBD ( central business district ) thinking to myself , ‘ If I ever get the chance to start a bank that ’ s genuinely focused on the customer , I ’ ll show them how to do it ...’ I suppose the moral of the story is be careful what you wish for .”
Fast-forward a year and Bowe had gotten his wish . He left his career in telecoms and joined a bank , helping the National Australia Bank ( NAB ) launch a new online bank called UBank . “ Ever since then I ’ ve been super passionate about how to make banking better for customers and specifically how to do that online ,” Bowe enthuses . “ I think if you look at banks around the world , they all talk about how they ’ re trying to focus on the customer , but it ’ s quite clear that in many geographies , they have failed to do that adequately .” Bowe also points out that
SEPTEMBER 2019